Bible passages that I believe are misused or misunderstood
This week Matthew 10
Luke 2:14 says: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Matt 5;9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Or
John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
It seems strange that Jesus would say things like blessed are the peacemakers, or Peace I leave with you my peace I give you. When in Matthew 10:34-36 Jesus states:
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to turn "'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
36 a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.
There must be a reason for this apparent mis-speak. Did Jesus bring peace to mankind or did he bring a sword? Did Jesus bless the peacemakers while he himself would fight them with his sword?
When I was a young Christian I learned that there are two types of peace. The passages where Jesus says such things as my peace or peace I leave you etc. I was taught that this peace is inner peace like contentment and peace of mind. Now all that sounded good to me when I was a very young believer but as I got older and as I started reading the Bible instead of studying key passages I realized that there was more to it than there being just two words. Peace of mind comes from knowing that everything is alright or that everything will be alright, I would venture to say that faith in God would give us that level of Peace. Jesus says that he had not come to bring peace but in fact he had actually come to do the opposite. He says “I haven’t come to bring peace but I have come to bring war or fighting, hence the sword. But Jesus says a little bit more. Jesus says in Matt 10.35 – 36. “For I have come to turn "'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - 36 a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. What did Jesus mean when he said that he would do these terrible things? I don’t think he was talking about what the churches teach us today, that this was what would happen to believers who followed the Christ. The churches teach that this happened in the early Churches and has been happening ever since. But I believe that it could be something else.
When Jesus says that he has come to turn a man against his father or a daughter against her mother or a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law he wasn’t meaning that they were going to “Dob-in” each other to the authorities. When Matthew tells us that Jesus said “A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household ”He was telling them of something far worse than what we have been led to believe. Jesus is not going to bring peace on the Israelites he has come to judge them he has come to declare war. I will touch on this at a later date. Romans 1:18 would be a good passage to read because it speaks about the Wrath” of God
Let ‘s now look at some of Matt 10:
Matthew 10:1–4 Jesus gathers his disciples around him. Now notice it is very specific. This verse says he called the twelve disciples to him and gave them authority… What did Jesus give them authority over? He gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. Have you ever wondered why there are no evil Spirits around today like there was in the first century? I mean, if we believe the bible account they were everywhere and people knew about them and saw them. Today we don’t see them outside the Pentecostal assemblies. I’m not saying that they breed in the Pentecostal assemblies but that they seem to be the only ones that can see them. If indeed they can see them. My view is that those evil spirits are no longer around (not even in the Pentecostal assembly) because there is no one to give us authority over them plus, and I believe that this is the real reason, Jesus defeated them when he was resurrected. And what about authority over every disease? Every disease, I know no-one who has that kind of authority not over every disease. The seventy were not given authority at this time. The women were not given authority. None of the others were given authority to do those things. It was the twelve disciple, and then, as if to make sure that we understood the significance of this. Matthew writes in verse 2 “These are the names of the twelve apostles…” I guess Matthew knew some people would say that it probably wasn’t just the twelve. But just to drive the point home Matthew tells us in verse 5 “These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions…”
As we read the rest of Matt:10 we notice that no one else is included until Matt 11:1 I believe that that means the whole of Matthew 10 deals only with Jesus and his apostles. After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. Here Matthew makes it clear again that it was the twelve. This verse clearly states that: “After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples…” Why is this important? Does it matter how many are sent out? That isn’t the point. The point is this passage is very specific and we don’t have the right ignore it or change it. If we can do it here can we do it with other verses such as the resurrection for instance. Was Jesus dead when he was put into the tomb? I believe he was but if you are one of those who believe that when Jesus says that when he spoke to the twelve he could have meant any body within earshot then what’s to stop you from doing that with the resurrection? It’s not important how many are sent out. What is important is what the passage say’s and the passage says that only twelve disciples were in attendance or were selected by Jesus for a specific task and only twelve were given authority.
Let’s look at some of those instructions that Jesus gave the twelve. I believe that they say a great deal. In verse 5 Jesus tells the twelve where not to go. “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.” Would the disciples have been obeying Jesus if they had said “Yes we know that Jesus said not to go to the Samarians but it won’t do any harm because later on we’ll probably be going to the Samaritans so, we can save time..” Of course they didn’t say that, they wanted to obey Jesus. Then he tells them where to go in verse 6: Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel…” Then Jesus tells them (in verse 7) what to preach to the lost sheep of Israel. He tells them to say that the “kingdom of heaven is near…”
How specific is Jesus:
He calls the twelve
The twelve are named
He gives them authority he is the only one who can do this
do not go among the Gentiles
do not enter any towns of the Samaritans
Go to the lost sheep of Israel
Tell them “the kingdom of God is near
Jesus is very specific. He tells them where not to go and he tells them where to go then he tells them what to teach them.
Then comes a series of instructions on what to do if certain things happen to them. But lets go down to verse 17ff. I believe that these are some of the most misunderstood and some of the most misquoted passages in the New Testament. I’m not going to go into the mis-quotes other than to say that we can not apply these passages to believers today. Why not? Well Jesus was talking to the twelve Apostles, we established that in the first 5 verses.
In Matt 10:17-20 Jesus tells the twelve (already established) to be on guard against men because these me are going to hand them over to the leaders and they will be flogged. In verse 18 they are told that they will be brought before Governors and Kings and Gentiles as witnesses. Then in verse 19 Jesus tells them not to worry because when they are in front of these powerful men they will not speak their own words but they would speak the words of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God would speak for them. The disciples wouldn’t need an office to work from or a library of commentaries or some other aid. The Spirit would give them what to say.
There is the joke about the preachers son watching his preacher dad working on his sermon one Saturday evening. His dad is having a bit of a problem with the subject matter and there is a lot of under the breath murmuring and papers being screwed up then being tossed into waste paper bin and the bin was getting full. The little boy approaches his dad and says “What ya doin dad?” and dad says I’m preaching God’s word in assembly tomorrow. And the boys says innocently “Well dad, if it’s Gods word, why are you making so many mistakes? You see the disciples were given what to say. They didn’t have to think about it.
Matt 10:21-22 Jesus already spoke about the family dobbing each other in but when would it happen? Note it has nothing to do with Christians. It would happen while they (the twelve) were out preaching the Kingdom was near. Verse 22 this passage is used by some to teach us that we are saved by standing firm but that is not what it teaches. Once again it has nothing to do with Christians. Who are we dealing with? We are still working with the twelve apostles, no one else has entered the picture yet. Verse 22 states that “All men will hate you. Who? The Apostles. But he who stands firm to the end will be saved. Who will be saved? The Apostles. No one else, once again it has nothing to do with Christians Verse 23 is a very interesting passage so I’ve typed it out in full. 23 “When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” It is a sad indictment on some teachers/preachers when they are approached about the last part of this passage that they don’t know how to answer it. The sad part isn’t that they don’t know the answer but that when they start looking at the problem they see it goes against everything that they know to be true. So they drop it like a hot cake. They deal with the first part easily. “When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another…” They say that when you are out preaching the gospel to the people and you are being persecuted simply get out of there. But it doesn’t say that. This passage just like all the rest in chapter 10 is specific to the twelve and so if they flee from one place to another it can only be to a city or a place where the lost tribe of Israel are. But once again it has nothing to do with Christians
What does it teach? “I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” What did Jesus mean? Was he going somewhere? We know from chapter 11:1 that Jesus went on to Galilee after he had finished speaking to the twelve.
This is where I stick my neck out but I believe that Matthew has a problem with the time line. If you scan over to Matt 11:2 you will note that John the baptizer was still alive but in prison and he sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah or not. If you check out the account by Mark in Mark 6:16 John has been beheaded and also in Luke 9:9. So did Matthew get it wrong or was he not too fussed about when it happened but rather that it did happened? I believe the second part and that he wasn’t worried about when it happened. Look at the Sermon on the mount. Matt 5 – 7 some scholars now say that it appears to be a collection of writings not necessarily preached on a mountain side. H H Halley (Halley’s Bible Handbook Zondervan Publishing House 1965 p433) says that “Matthew places the sermon on the mount in the forefront of his story of the Galilean Ministry, although it seems to have come some months later at the time of the choosing of the twelve.” So if Matthew wasn’t concerned with getting the time right but only that something happened was he saying that the disciples would be out preaching that the Kingdom was at hand when Jesus came in judgment on the Jews? What else can it be? “I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
Another passage that is misquoted and misused is Matthew 10:29 - 31
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
I admit that I have preached the love of God for all Christians by using this passage but I was wrong. And I apologize to any one that I have lead astray by preaching it. So what is this passage teaching? Well it’s teaching that God is aware of those he has chosen to do work for him. I don’t mean those who think that God has sent them out but those whom God sent out such as the twelve disciples. Jesus has just told the twelve that he is sending them to be persecuted, whipped, abused, thrown into prison and even killed and he says that men will hate them. Now understand what they are feeling. Scared would be understatement. So what does Jesus tell them? He says God knows when the sparrows die and he controls that. Then he tells them “So don’t be afraid; (you will get special treatment from God) Why? Because you (the twelve) are worth more than many sparrows.
But, I hear you saying, God loves all of us and so we can teach that from this passage. I say again we can’t because if we do then we can also teach that if we die we will be raised up on the third day by God. Isn’t it time to make a decision about whether we believe the bible to be the word of God or not instead of paying lip service to it? If the book is from God then we had better watch how we use it. We can’t pick and choose passages that fit our doctrine or don’t fit it.
32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” We can’t use this passage to say that we need to acknowledge God because although it says “Whoever…me before men,…” This passage is dealing with the twelve and their message that was being preached to the lost sheep of Israel. It was never meant for the gentiles and we have to start looking seriously at what and where we teach from.
Next time I’m going to look at why Jesus talked so much about the lost sheep of Israel.
